288 TIMALIID^E. 



blades of grass but with these are mixed a certain amount of dead 

 leaves, fern- and bracken-fronds and weeds ; tendrils and roots are 

 used to bind the materials together. The lining is of roots or 

 bamboo leaves and sometimes a little moss is used inside and 

 outside the nest. The sites selected may be either in bamboo 

 and scrub or in deep forest. The eggs number two, three or four 

 and have the ground-colour anything from pure white to pale 

 sienna and the markings consist of tiny specks of dark sienna- 

 brown, often forming a ring or cap but profusely scattered else- 

 where also. A fe\v eggs with white ground have the specks still 

 darker and finer. The shape is generally a short oval ; pyriform 

 eggfs not being rare. They are very fragile and have no gloss. 

 Sixty eggs average 18-3 x 14-3 mm. 



Habits. This is a still more cheerful, lively little bird than 

 those of the genus Schcenipai-us and when fluttering about a bush 

 on which insects are plentiful remind one of Warblers of the 

 genus Phylloscopvs. They do not, I think, ever feed on the 

 ground nor on the other hand do they ascend any height into 

 trees but I have seen them in grass and scrub occasionally and 

 in bamboos often ; when in deep forest, which they most affect, 

 they prefer places where there are glades or breaks such as are 

 made by streams, jungle-tracks etc. rather than the denser, 

 darker portions. They keep up a soft twittering the whole time 

 they are feeding. 



(302) Pseudominla castaneiceps castaneiceps. 

 THE CHESTNUT-HEADED BABBLER. 



Minla castaneiceps Hodgs., Ind. Rev., 1838, p. 38 (Nepal). 

 Sittiparus castaneiceps. Blanf . & Gates, i, p. 172. 



Vernacular names. None recorded. 



Description. Forehead, crown and nape chestnut-brown, the 

 feathers of the forehead with broad white streaks, those of the 

 crown and nape with pale rufous streaks ; a broad line through 

 the eye and a narrow moustachial streak black ; remainder of 

 sides of head white; back, scapulars, rump and smaller wing- 

 coverts olive-green tinged with fulvous ; greater wing-coverts and 

 primary-coverts black ; winglet black on the outer webs, white on 

 the inner ; quills olive-green, the earlier primaries edged with 

 hoary-grey, the latter and the secondaries edged with chestnut at 

 the base ; -innermost secondaries broadly edged with olive-green 

 on both webs ; below from chin to under tail-coverts pale fulvous- 

 white, the sides of breast and body ochraceous; under wing- 

 coverts white. 



Colours of soft parts. Iris red-brown to crimson ; bill, above 

 dark horny, the lower mandible dull fleshy, sometimes yellowish, 

 especially at base ; legs and feet dingy greenish yellow or yellowish- 

 horn. 



